Ok, the one complaint I have about this episode. Is having a Fast Forward on a linear leg. You might as well just hand # to the first team.

True, but Nat & Kat are my favorite team so I'm not really complaining all that much.

Belle Book

I do. It wouldn't matter if its my favorite team or the team I hate the most. Its just poor planning. It removes even the possibility of drama. Seriously. Nat & Kat could have quit, and still probably made it to the RB before the other teams.

It's like last season putting aU-Turn in a leg that followed a linear leg. Meaning the first team would have to screw up dramatically not to be the team that gets to use it. And that team ran the slowest leg (still got number one and of course got to use the U-Turn).

Good point. But even if it was poor planning, I'm still glad Nat & Kat got it and came in first!

Oh, and still another good episode. Nice tasks. Just don't like the freebee award.

I wonder why they do them now. Season 12 was only the 1st time they have had a linear leg since season 1 (which had one), ever since every seasons has had one or two. And while I like the idea of teams being able to keep their lead from a previous leg (Imagine how some of the teams from seasons 2-10 could have done), but it really does limit the drama.

The music task looks like a possible Flashback. (The second detour in the Ukraine leg of TAR 10.)

Not a true Switchback, but this looks harder. Looks like identifying a particular musical piece being played in a room where many different pieces are being played simultaneously. The Ukraine task was just: find the sheet music, give it to someone to play.

Oh, and still another good episode. Nice tasks. Just don't like the freebee award.

I wonder why they do them now. Season 12 was only the 1st time they have had a linear leg since season 1 (which had one), ever since every seasons has had one or two. And while I like the idea of teams being able to keep their lead from a previous leg (Imagine how some of the teams from seasons 2-10 could have done), but it really does limit the drama.

^ I thought about that but an hours of operations really doesn't cost much more then a price of a sign.

True but the only place they could have placed it was either at the FF or the gondola (I don't think the gondola managers would like being told to keep closed after their normal opening hours), none of the locations justified a HoH other than those.

Logged

The story so far:In the beginning the Universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move

The cutbacks in the Fast Forwards was definitely financial. Before they started cutting back on the FFs about half of them were never used. In more recent editions, that same ratio still seemed to be the case (it would not be used about half the time).

I've given up on ever seeing the FF return to the early season pattern; at this point, if they treated the Express Pass that same way (all the teams had a chance to use it once up until the final leg) it would bring back the sense of strategy in its use, but eliminate the costs of setting up tasks that don't get used.

^ I thought about that but an hours of operations really doesn't cost much more then a price of a sign.

True but the only place they could have placed it was either at the FF or the gondola (I don't think the gondola managers would like being told to keep closed after their normal opening hours), none of the locations justified a HoH other than those.

Well it appeared to be off season for them. In all the footage did you see any other people besides racers there?

Even a partial HoH of an hour would have probably given enough time for five teams to scramble for it.

And if push came to shove they could certainly have an hours of operation, that actually had nothing to do with the actual hours that a facility is open (they've done it before).

To me if you are going to do that, then you might as well get rid of the reward given when reaching the Pit Stop. In the same way that getting the Express Pass was the award for winning a leg.

This episode was not as exciting for me, probably because the teams did not start out on equal ground and hence the positions hardly shifted. I'm really happy that Nat and Kat won the Fast Forward and came in first again! It was so endearing watching the two ladies. First, Nat struggled with her fear of heights. Then, Kat struggled with eating the meat after being a vegetarian for 22 years. It's just amazing, seeing their drive to win and how they're always so encouraging towards each other. It would be awesome if they were the first all-female team to win the race, but I shan't get my hopes too high now. Happy with how they did this leg!

Gary and Mallory are still going strong! I actually half expected them to fall a couple of positions this leg because I thought that their prime was over. But they surprised me once again by finishing in a strong second place. I love Mallory's positive energy on the race! "I love Christmas!" Lol. I love the father-daughter and father-son teams! Love how Kevin is always thinking for his dad's safety, and being willing to go for slower tasks just for his dad.

Brook and Claire were amazing this leg too. I was so impressed with Claire for not giving up during the Roadblock. It was tough, but it was great seeing her fighting spirit and Brook's encouragement to her. These two girls just continue to crack me up with their craziness, energy and humour lol. And they're probably the most consistent team of the race thus far.

Nick and Vicki... "What does Fast Forward taken mean?" Seriously, have you guys never watched TAR before? That cracked me up totally. Well, they should be thankful that going for the FF did not cost them their position. That was major luck on their part. Did they honestly think that every team could do the FF... I was already shocked that they decided to go for it despite knowing that they were in 6th and at least one of the teams before that must have done it. But I must give props to Vicki, she's one really strong woman. Look at her perform the Roadblock and Detour! I was really impressed.

I'm not too sad that Katie and Rachel are gone, it's expected, and they haven't been the nicest people on the race. But overall, I still do not dislike any team. Once again, I love this season!

mswood,From a geographical perspective, you are correct that the northernmost quarter of Alaska is the land of the midnight sun as the Arctic Circle goes not very far north of Fairbanks. Here is the worldwide perspective on what is above the Arctic Circle and subject to the midnight sun phenomenom:

polar ice capthe northern 90% of GreenlandLappland - including the cities of Bodo, Narvik, Tromso and Hammerfest in Norway and Kiruna in Sweden but mostly inhabited by the Sami in landlocked northern Finland; population of 160,000 in the above 5 cities but little elsewhereRussia- the city of Murmansk ( at population of 311,000 it probably has half of the total population above the Arctic Circle), island of Nova Zemlya (where the Russians had a lot of missile development centers), and a surprisingly small part of northern SiberiaAlaska - cities of Kotzebue and Prudhoe Bay, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, two national parks and other national reserves, with a total population of under 10,000 for the northernmost 1/4 of the stateCanada- very small tip of Yukon, small tip of Northwest Territories, and almost all of Nunavut; negligible population

Let us give appropriate kudos to World Race Productions for breaking their normal inane practices. The result is to let the better teams who earn it by getting ahead stay ahead and the weaker teams to fall by the wayside.

I was taught the Land of the Midnight Sun was any land above the Arctic Circle, no matter the country......why?......well cuz the sun shone on it at midnight....lol

When I lived in Alaska, the Anchorage TV stations in the nightly weather segment would put up a map of Alaska with hi/lo temp reading for the day all over the map....places I had never heard of. I got a map to look them up and sure enough....they were real. Many of them didnt have 50 people living there.....but they displayed the temps for the day for them. Some of them were old DEW stations.

My problem with a linear leg is that it isn't fair. And I don't mean because teams don't get equalized, but because all the legs aren't designed that way. Now of course travel with planes, boats, trains ect will have create some bunching, and some sites are naturally going to have hours of operations which can also bunch teams.

But frankly look at last years linear legs.

Leg four was won by Michael and Louie not due to great racing but due to the first flight being an hour late. It wasn't because they raced great, and even using the arrival times they didn't run the fastest leg.

Leg five didn't feature any buncing and of course Micheal and Louie won that leg, but again the got in that position not through skill or ability. He'll and besides the team eliminated ran the slowest leg out of the surviving teams. And of course that ran into another linear leg they won.

Ideally I also wouldn't put fast forwards or uturns on those types of legs or for that matter have the leg before be a non elimination leg.

She did great on the physical tasks (so plus there) but seriously how dumb is this team.

And have they ever watched TAR before (a huge pet peeve of mine).

Actually, I believe Nick and Vicki aren't dumb or stupid. They are just not book/school educated. Also, as you mentioned, they appear to have not watched a lot of TAR before. However, they are very physical and can figure things out given some time. (Loved how Vicki beat the pants off almost everyone with her ascender performance!) The problem with them is going to come when they DON'T have any extra time to "figure it out".

I think TAR uses their "mistakes" because their remarks are funny. However if they were really as "dumb" as they appear they wouldn't have made it this far.

That said, Nat & Kat are my favorite team. During this leg, both overcame personal obstacles that we have seen other teams fail on - fear of heights and being a long-time vegetarian.

She did great on the physical tasks (so plus there) but seriously how dumb is this team.

And have they ever watched TAR before (a huge pet peeve of mine).

Actually, I believe Nick and Vicki aren't dumb or stupid. They are just not book/school educated. Also, as you mentioned, they appear to have not watched a lot of TAR before. However, they are very physical and can figure things out given some time. (Loved how Vicki beat the pants off almost everyone with her ascender performance!) The problem with them is going to come when they DON'T have any extra time to "figure it out".

I think TAR uses their "mistakes" because their remarks are funny. However if they were really as "dumb" as they appear they wouldn't have made it this far.

That said, Nat & Kat are my favorite team. During this leg, both overcame personal obstacles that we have seen other teams fail on - fear of heights and being a long-time vegetarian.

I think they have more brawn than brains. But their biggest problem is that they have little to no knowledge of how TAR works. And that's a problem!

I was so proud of Kat for overcoming her aversion to meat enough to finish the Roadblock. It may not have hurt them a lot if she'd quit, but by doing it she proved that she'll do whatever it takes to make it to the end!

I was very excited to see a leg in Norway again, last time was in season 6 obviously. I hoped for a long time that they would return to my country, and finally...

I live in Tromso, not very far from Narvik. Tromso is ofc one of the big cities in Northern Norway.

The fact that TAR was in Narvik this leg didn't go unnoticed by the tourist offices around, it was big publicity for them, to show off nature and the locations around. Below I've linked to a fairly small article translated with google.

Edit: The article mentions a comparison to the norwegian produced series "71 degrees north" which is North Cape here in Norway, but IMO the comparison is totally wrong. It's nothing like TAR at all so pay no attention to that.

Props to Kat who ate that smalahovud meal. I've never eaten it myself, and I would never do it. I find it repulsive and I can't believe people would eat that for X-mas

I, as well, was very impressed with Vicki who repelled and ascended in record time without so much breaking a sweat. She didn't even breathe heavy, and I thought to myself "Wow, this woman is a cardio machine" They may be lesser schooled in the race, but they sure are entertaining to watch hehe.

I love this forum and all the information you are able to dig up. You guys and gals makes this place a very entertaining and enjoyable place to get information and shared views of my favorite tv show ever. Props to all of you